Integrating GIS and The Global Positioning System

GPS technology is helping researchers keep elephants from the brink of extinction, mapping mazes of oil and gas pipeline, locating the sources of a highly infectious disease, keeping armchair sailors on the edge of their seats as they chart the progress of a race across the Atlantic--the ways GPS is being used range along an astonishingly broad spectrum of activities, personal and public, commercial and educational, business and pleasure.

Integrating GIS and the Global Positioning System is a comprehensive introduction to the subject. It covers the basics of the system--what the components are, how they work in theory and in practice, how accuracy can be improved almost to a pinpoint--and presents several case studies that illustrate some of the ways in which the power of GPS is being harnessed to the depth of GIS: accuracy in measurement and completeness of coverage.

Contents

PART 1

• Chapter 1: An introduction to the Global Positioning System -- Using satellites and the pseudorandom code to find yourself.
• Chapter 2: Differential GPS -- Sharpening accuracy almost to a pinpoint.
• Chapter 3: Three stages of a GPS project: Planning, implementation, evaluation -- Planning, implementing, and evaluating a project using GPS.

PART 2

• Chapter 4: Fifty thousand miles of pipe -- Mapping assets: Creating and maintaining a comprehensive spatial and digital data inventory.
• Chapter 5: The reservoir, the vector, and the outbreak -- Tracking disease: Helping biologists locate sources and carriers of one of the world's most powerful viruses.
• Chapter 6: "Call 911!" -- Emergency response: Getting the newest and most remote addresses on the 911 emergency response map.
• Chapter 7: Cold lakes and Hot Springs -- Permitting: Streamlining and speeding up the application process.
• Chapter 8: Saving the elephants -- ArcView Tracking Analyst: Bringing elephants back from the brink of extinction.
• Chapter 9: Saving the farmer -- Precision agriculture: Coming up with new answers to old questions.
• Chapter 10: Car 54, where are you? -- Automatic vehicle location: Helping cops get there quicker when you need them.
• Chapter 11: Disaster -- Public safety: Planning for and preventing wildfires, floods, toxic spills, and other disasters.
• Chapter 12: Across the ocean single-handed--while millions watch -- Navigation and entertainment: Putting a sailboat race from France to the Caribbean on the World Wide Web.